The project is a qualitative and participatory research aimed at documenting the experiences of students with disabilities in higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methodologically, the research will be based on visual and reflexive research methods and will involve photovoice workshops and open journaling.

The research design is based on a sequence of three online photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1997) workshops with a total of at least eight participants, students with disabilities enrolled at a Romanian university during the Covid-19 pandemic, irrespective of specialization and program level (undergraduate or graduate studies). During the first workshop, students will be encouraged to reflect on their rights to access higher education at the university and whether or not these rights are being successfully enacted by the university in the present organization of online and hybrid educational activities. After this discussion, research objectives will be negotiated with students and they will be invited to take photographs documenting their participation in higher education during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. They will be encouraged to document their experiences, challenges and barriers they have faced, as well as aspects that have facilitated their educational inclusion during this time and the ways in which they have navigated their academic social relations, as well as any other aspects that they find relevant. Participants can decide which aspects are relevant to their everyday lives and focus only on those. The students will use their own devices to take photographs. Together with the participants we will agree on a timespan in which they will take photographs, during this time, they will also be encouraged to fill-out an online reflexive diary. After this we will reconvene for a second online workshop in which we will discuss the photographs taken in the form of a photo-elicitation workshop. After this workshop, the research team will analyze the qualitative data collected and invite the participants for a third workshop, in which participants will be invited to engage with the interpretations proposed by the research team. The photovoice workshops will be adapted to not create additional barriers to participation for those interested, e.g. support will be offered for students with visual impairments that want to participate and the photographs discussed will be captioned with descriptions. A reflexive journal about their experience will also be filled in by participants documenting aspects that are more difficult to document with photographs. The study seeks to contribute to a better understanding of students with disabilities’ perspectives on education during the Covid-19 pandemic, including remote and hybrid forms of education. Moreover, the study will help document the barriers faced by students in participating in higher education, as well as identify promising aspects of remote/hybrid education for the academic inclusion students with disabilities.

Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health education & behavior, 24(3), 369-387.

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